Boxer Jamie Kavanagh suffers first professional defeat

Lightweight Jamie Kavanagh (15-1-1, 7 KOs) suffered his first defeat as a professional when he was stopped by Daniel Ruiz (32-7-1, 22 KOs) in the sixth round of their fight in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico on Saturday night.

It was an evening to forget for the 23-year-old, and things got off to a bad start when he was called to the ring 30 minutes before his scheduled time, which meant that he didn’t get time to warm up properly.

“I felt heavy, it was a bad night. I was jumping in and I was falling short with my punches. I wasn’t loose,” Kavanagh told the Irish Voice on Monday. “I wasn’t able to get my feet right or my coordination right.

“In the third round he caught me with a left hook and I went forward to try and grab him and fell, but it was a knockdown. In the fourth and fifth round I was starting to get back into the fight, but then in the sixth round he caught me again with a left hook.”

While Kavanagh went on to say that the shot looked worse that it was, he did not have too many complaints about the stoppage as the ref saw him stumble after taking the punch before jumping in to call a halt to proceedings.

“I was just off the whole night,” he said, adding that even though fitness had never been an issue for him, the humidity on the night took a toll and he was feeling the heat after the third round. “I felt like there was a blanket over my chest.”

Kavanagh went on to say that trainer Joel Diaz was as frustrated as he was at the way things turned out, as the Dubliner wasn’t able to execute the things they had been working on in the gym during training camp on the night. He will now head to Europe for the holidays before coming back to the U.S. in the New Year.

“It’s about coming back and learning from it. I am looking to regroup and get back, take what I can from this, learn from it and come back stronger,” Kavanagh said.

In other news, Philadelphia-based Belfast native Tyrone McKenna moved to 3-0 with a unanimous decision win last Wednesday night at the Econolodge in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The light welterweight defeated Jeffrey Combs in a four-round fight, taking the decision 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37 on the judges’ scorecards.